Tell Me Your High Hopes

Hats
by Carl Sandburg

HATS, where do you belong?
what is under you?

On the rim of a skyscraper’s forehead
I looked down and saw: hats: fifty thousand hats:
Swarming with a noise of bees and sheep, cattle and waterfalls,
Stopping with a silence of sea grass, a silence of prairie corn.
Hats: tell me your high hopes.


It was a glorious day at Wave Hill yesterday - brilliant sunshine and a non-stop flow of people in and out of the studio. Many returning for one more day of fibre-y fun and many first timers.


This is Merrick, who is modeling her second hat. She thought she would just drop in for an hour or so several weeks ago. Such naivete, such innocence. She came back nearly every Saturday thereafter and is now working on her third hat. She especially loved carding and spent a lot of time making the most gorgeous batts imaginable.


This talented knitter came back several times as well, often with her daughter, who also knit a hat. The hat she has in her hand was her second, which she finished while sitting in the sunshine.


This is Janet, who is a regular volunteer at Wave Hill and was assigned to help me out on Saturdays. She was irreplaceable - a quick learner not afraid to jump right in. She not only taught people to card and spin but to knit. She often had a little group of new knitters in a corner where she would give advice and direction. Thank you so much Janet!


This lovely knitter also knit two hats. She is originally from France and definitely brought that je ne sais quoi to the project.

These next two pictures are of hats made by two women that I came to think of as "The Felting Ladies". This one was actually the third hat made by Teresa, an amazing felter who was so generous with her knowledge that she gave several inpromtu demonstrations. This hat was made from yarn she knit, then felted. Her two other hats were made from fleece she carded then felted. Each one, an object of beauty.



Teresa's friend and felting partner, Laura, is originally from Italy. She told me that she gave up on spinning after it took her 2.5 hours to spin 2 yards of yarn. Yarn that she immediately sent to her mother in Italy. If her hat was not quite as accomplished as Teresa's, it made up for it with its, well, good humour. We had lots of laughs together. Felters are fun!


And here is a blog post from Laurel over at Yarn Therapy about her experiences, along with a photo of her hat, which is pretty darn cute.

By the end of the day, we had 28 hats in hand and promises for many more. All will be installed at Wave Hill House on March 4th and will be on view until mid-April, when we do our hat exchange party.